New Home Sales in US Leap to Highest Level in Over a Decade

Sales of new U.S. single-family homes unexpectedly rose in November, peaking at their highest level in over a decade, spurred by powerful demand across the U.S.

According to a U.S. Commerce Department announcement on Friday, single-family home sales leaped nearly 20 percent (17.5 percent to be exact) to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 733,000 units in November.

That is the highest level since July 2007. The leap in new home sales is also a marked increase of 26.6 percent from 2016. The news shocked economists who forecasted a decrease in new home sales. Experts predicted new homes sales would drop 4.7 percent to 654,000 units last month in a recent Reuters poll.

The surge in new home sales in November immediately followed the downward trend of 624,000 units the month before in October. The pace of new homes sales reported in October was 685,000 units.

These figures are strong signals that the housing market is on an upward rebound and gaining speed after a lame year, coupled with significant growth in November in single-family homebuilding and sales of previously owned homes.

Shortfalls in the number of homes available for sale, along with suitable skilled labor and land to build upon have created a bottleneck in the housing market of late.

Positive movement in the housing market also had been constrained by inclement weather this year, especially hurricanes earlier this year.

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